On 15 Oct 1998 sean_ross_at_pl-04m3 at smtpgw1.plk.af.mil wrote:
> This is in response to my earlier question about why packages I
> wrote
> wouldn't load. The answer is that code written in the 3.0.1
> FrontEnd
> and Saved As Special:Package Format is commented out in the save
> routine, thus all packages written in the front end and saved in
> what
> appears to be the intended manner have an extra (* at the front of
> the
> file and an extra *) at the end, effectively disabling the code.
> If
> you remove these in a text editor, the package can be read in and
> everything loads just fine. I now have two more questions related
> to
> this.
>
> 1) is this placing of extra (* and *) in packages by the
> SaveAsSpecial:Package Format a "feature" or a "bug"?
The Save As Special -> Package Format command exports the contents of
cells which have the InitializationCell option set to True. Contents of
cells that do not meet this criterion will be commented out.
> 2) The kernel knows to search the \ProgrammingInMathematica and the
>
> \Utilities subdirectories of the ExtraPackages folder. If I put my
>
> own subdirectory in the ExtraPackages folder, the Kernel does not
> search there. Why? I got around it by appending the path to the
> $Path variable in the init.m, but I am still curious as to how the
> Kernel knew it was supposed to search only those two subdirectories
>
> but wouldn't search mine even though none of them was listed
> explicitly in the $Path.
Are you loading the package with a context name that reflects the
relative path from a directory on $Path? For example, in order to load
the packages in the ExtraPackages directory, you have to issue commands
like:
Needs["ProgrammingInMathematica`ChaosGame"]
because ExtraPackages is on $Path, but the ProgrammingInMathematica
subdirectory is not.
--
P.J. Hinton
Mathematica Programming Group paulh at wolfram.com Wolfram
Research, Inc. http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone.